


"Companion"

by tiddlersinajamjar



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel (Movies), The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Drabble, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-19
Updated: 2012-06-19
Packaged: 2017-11-08 02:39:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 411
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/438236
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tiddlersinajamjar/pseuds/tiddlersinajamjar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony is used to pushing people away, but he likes to keep Pepper close.</p>
            </blockquote>





	"Companion"

**Author's Note:**

> Just a drabble I did for a tumblr writing challenge. I liked this one more than the others so here it is.

Tony Stark was bred to live alone, intentionally or not. Although he could just picture Howard, deciding that this would be the way for his son, because without his own family, maybe he could have gone further. He gives Tony less and less attention, uses his fatherly influence, directs Tony to engineering without having to utter a word. Tony Stark builds machines for his father’s approval, and when that doesn’t work, he builds them because he can make them more human than the man he sees behind Howard’s distant eyes.

So Tony grows up, keeps robots close and people at arms length, because he’s gone this far without needing anyone, and he doesn’t need someone taking that away from him now. He goes through people the way he drinks, keeps going and going until they’re empty, but at least the bottle is reliable and never talks back. Pepper arrives, and Tony doesn’t even give her a second glance. She’s gorgeous, but she’d be gone by the end of the week. 

Pepper doesn’t leave. Not after two explosions and four evacuations, the swearing, the tardiness, the one-night stands, the flirting, not even his inability to act like an adult 80% of the time. He tells her this the first time he meets her, hands and mind buried in blueprints and she says “I think I can deal with that.”

She stays and for the first time in a long time, Tony has a companion that he didn’t program. Sure he has Rhodey, but Pepper can’t leave and ignore him when he’s pissing her off more than usual. He can’t predict her moves, can’t predict if she’s going to laugh, or going snap at him, and Tony likes it. 

He stops leering at her and making suggestive comments. He starts to open up, makes sure she knows that she’s staying for a while, if she can deal with that. Then they’re friends, she holds his heart in her hands, he promotes her, then they’re dating. Tony doesn’t even know how he got there, because all he can remember is arguing with her, but he never wants it to end. 

Even if it does end, Tony knows Pepper still wouldn’t leave. They have too much trust in each other, and he refuses to screw this up by falling into old habits. No matter what the parameters of their relationship are, Tony’s got Pepper for life, and he knows that she can deal with that.


End file.
